Secret Government

Secret Government is a global strategy game in which you lead the Brotherhood, a secret society that has discreetly influenced humanity for hundreds of years. Rather than ruling a country or issuing direct orders, you send agents to infiltrate governments and manipulate countries into acting as you intend. As Grand Master, you choose the kind of world order you want to create.

Influence countries

Send agents to different countries to recruit public servants and gain access to institutions of power. You can influence one or several countries at once, changing their ruling powers, ideologies and the well-being of their estates. You can also provoke countries to make war, peace or alliances, but you cannot attack a country directly. Laws, the ruling party’s ideology, the form of government and military, social and economic policies all shape how a country behaves.

The Brotherhood’s masters have distinct abilities. You choose which traits to develop and how, and select brothers for particular tasks. A rival global brotherhood also recruits government members and manipulates countries. You will encounter its members in red robes; their actions may sometimes serve your plans. Work discreetly: governments or the rival brotherhood can expose you.

Economy and society

A country’s wealth and its population’s well-being depend on the economy. You can influence production, how estates and industries consume resources, and trade between countries. Countries and their people are divided into estates, each with social roles, values and needs. People are born, die, migrate and move between estates, and influencing them can change both their country and its place in the world.

The systems are connected, so decisions can have consequences throughout a country. A steel shortage can weaken weapons production and reduce military strength; expanding the army to compensate can mobilize peasants, reducing food production. That can lead other estates, such as artisans, to decline or migrate. Artisans work in industries that produce luxury goods for export, bringing money into the country’s treasury. The Grand Master must account for these connections while steering the world toward the chosen order.

Eras and campaigns

The game includes two historical periods, 1685 and 1775, with the political and territorial divisions of each era. You can shape the world in free play or take the role of Grand Master in either of two story campaigns: the Glorious Revolution in England and the thirteen colonies’ struggle for independence in the New World. In each mission, you intervene in the period’s central conflict, either moving events along their historical course or changing them.